[LRUG] attr_accessor parsed as a method variable when setting with a get

[Max Williams]

There's also the ability to override the setter method, to do a bit of
pre-processing for example stripping unwanted spaces out of strings or
whatever.  Always using the setter method to change the value (outside of
the setter method itself of course) means that when the variable is altered
it is always altered according to the same rules.

On 21 September 2011 11:48, Graham Ashton <graham at effectif.com> wrote:

> On 21 Sep 2011, at 11:31, Tom Stuart wrote:
>
> > I like this because a) it encapsulates access to that piece of state, in
> case I want to provide a default or otherwise wrap reads/writes to the
> instance variable, and b) instance variables are ugly innit.
> >
> > But if you like reading/writing instance variables in your methods,
> perhaps for Nebulous Performance Reasons, that's fine too.
>
> Nice summary.
>
> I've benefitted enough times (normally when refactoring classes) over the
> years from calling the accessor methods to feel that it's well worth it.
>
> Once you've defined the accessor, consistency and predictability is also a
> good reason to use it.
>
> In Python once you've defined the setter, it automatically gets called on
> assignment. In other words, the syntax for calling the setter is identical
> to the syntax to setting the instance variable. This has always struck me as
> a brilliant piece of design. What's nice about that is you don't have some
> code calling the accessor, some code updating the instance variable
> directly, simply because people have different styles, preferences or
> expectations.
>
> In Ruby I stick to the convention instead.
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